


talk to me

by ottermo



Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: Gen, Mia Lives, Post S3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-07 15:11:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16856314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ottermo/pseuds/ottermo
Summary: A newly-resurrected Mia suspects there’s something Leo isn’t telling her.





	talk to me

The world is not to know, Niska was quite clear about that. Mia’s return is to be kept under close wraps - there has been talk about reconstruction, a change of hair colour, a new name. She can’t be un-martyred. Her symbolic status aside, they really don’t need paranoid humans suspecting synths of being invulnerable to death. 

Behind closed doors at the railyard, though, she is only herself, and even Niska can’t contain her joy and relief. Long into the night, the four of them talk, conscious that there is still an empty space in their gathering but grateful beyond measure that there aren’t two. That Mia is alive. 

Max flags first, and is no match for the combined forces of both his sisters telling him he absolutely  _ has _ to go and charge. Soon after, Niska also has to admit defeat, especially if she’s going to have enough power by morning to go and explain recent events to Astrid. 

“She will understand,” Mia tells her. “She loves you.” 

Niska bristles under the unsolicited reassurance. “I’m not worried.” 

She really isn’t, Mia is glad to notice now, not about Astrid, at least. Whatever doubts are weighing on Niska’s mind, they’re offset by her total trust in Astrid’s love, and that surety is a beautiful thing to see. 

Left alone with Leo, Mia studies him carefully, can see none of that baseline contentment behind his eyes. Something haunts him still. 

“What’s wrong?” she asks him gently, once the door has closed behind their sister. “Tell me.” 

He does a very good impression of a person smiling. “Nothing. Everything’s fine. Better than fine.” 

She knows what he’s referring to, and it’s flattering but not convincing. 

“Leo.” 

“I’m just tired, that’s all.” He yawns to prove it. “Max and Niska worked themselves down to one percent. I was here too.” 

She doesn’t for a moment think it’s that, but she lets him have it for now. “All right. Then it’s bedtime.” 

Because, well, if he’s going to  _ behave _ like he’s six again… 

There’s not much in the way of bedding here at the railyard, but there’s a blanket stowed in the medbay from when Mattie had become self-aware about her tendency to fall asleep at Leo’s bedside. Mia fetches it, pleased to be of use in an old and familiar capacity, and to his credit he takes it from her as if he has any intention of using it. 

“Thanks,” he says. “What are  _ you _ going to do?”

Mia is fresh from a thirteen-hour charge and a complete neural reboot - she doesn’t remember the last time she felt this energised. 

“I’ll find something to keep me busy,” she says, thinking less enigmatically of a sketchbook she doesn’t remember packing for the move. It will still be around here somewhere.

Two portraits and a still-life later, her thoughts are still of Leo, of how drawn and quiet he’d seemed once the initial frenzy of her return had faded. She picks up her drawings and heads back to where she left him, telling herself that if by some miracle he’s asleep, she can stop worrying. 

Of course, he’s not. He’s still sitting, slouched over a little more, the blanket still in his hands. He’s staring down at it, and Mia finds herself wondering if he knows who it belongs to - if he feels out of place here, now. 

“This isn’t sleeping,” she says pointedly. He jumps a little at the sound of her voice, looks up ruefully. 

“Maybe I had a nap.” 

“Or maybe you’ve forgotten that you can’t lie to me,” she counters, coming to sit next to him again. 

He acknowledges that, at least. 

“You need to sleep, Leo,” she says, “You can’t pick and choose anymore. It’s sleep or nothing.” 

He nods. “I’ve noticed.”

“And you’re right, you’ve been working round the clock with the others, so you must be exhausted. What’s stopping you from sleeping?” 

He shrugs. “I don’t know, I’m recently human. Adrenaline?” 

“Stop it.” She takes his arm, twines hers around it, joins their hands. “I’m trying to convince myself that I’m the original me, and not a coded replacement. But as long as you’re not talking to me, I feel like an imposter.” She looks at him beseechingly. “Please, Leo. If I’m back I should be back for real.” 

“Of  _ course _ you’re back for real,” he says, falling for her ploy so easily that she almost feels bad about it. “Do you really feel – of course you’re you.” 

“Then talk to me,” she says, “like you would have done, if I hadn’t died yesterday.” 

He shudders, involuntarily. “That’s exactly it, though. We brought you back, so in comparison I…. this, anything else, it’s not important.” 

She changes tack, takes hold of the blanket with her other hand. “Did something happen when you were at the Hawkinses’?” 

He gives a strange strangled-sounding laugh. “You could say that.” 

“I’m sorry we had to send you away. We’re still your family, though. That was true before you were ever half synthetic.”

“I know. Really, Mimi, it’s nothing you’ve done, it’s… All right,” he clears his throat. “It is to do with Mattie, I’m just… not sure that it’s mine to tell you. I will, when I can. But for now, can’t it just be enough that you’re here?” 

Mia’s analytical brain rifles through the possibilities, hits on the only one that really makes sense with his wording, with his entire demeanour, his brand new hesitance around her. 

Oh, Leo, what have you done? 

“I am here,” Mia confirms, “But should  _ you _ be?” 

He frowns. “You’re my family. You said it yourself.” 

“Yes,” Mia says, oh-so-gently, “But we’re not your only family now, are we?” 

She laces it with just enough meaning that he doesn’t try and sidestep it. He just holds her hand tighter. 

“Talk to me,” she pleads, “You didn’t betray her trust, you didn’t say the words. I knew, that’s all. Call it a mother’s instinct.” 

He leans his head against her shoulder, the way he used to when he was small. “I told her I couldn’t... that she would be better off without me.” 

This, to Mia, is far worse a revelation, but she deliberately disperses the code that gathers to scold him for it. Instead she just asks, “Why?” 

“Because it’s  _ true _ ,” he says, “What kind of father could I be? I have no idea what I’m doing.” 

“It _isn't _true,” she insists. “You know better than most what to avoid.”__

____

____

“What if I can’t, though? What if I turn out just like him?” 

It borders on the ridiculous. “Leo, you are nothing like your father. I should know. It was my job to make sure of it.” 

That gives him pause, she can tell. 

“If you’re saying that his influence on your life was greater than mine, greater than Fred’s, and Niska’s and Max’s…. if you really think you’re more his son than you are mine…” 

She leaves that hanging on purpose, knowing he can’t argue it. 

“That’s what I thought,” said Mia, vindicated by his silence. 

“It’s too late, anyway,” he says after a while. “I tried to go back. I told her I was wrong to try and leave. But she didn’t want to know.” 

“It’s early days,” Mia reminds him. “Maybe she’ll change her mind.” 

He doesn’t look very hopeful. 

“The worst part of this is Niska,” Leo says unexpectedly. 

“She knows?” Mia asks, surprised. She can’t imagine Niska having the patience to put in the work she’d had to, to get it out of him. 

“She knows everything,” he says dismissively, “And that’s a whole different… that could go badly. But the baby, she says… she’s told Mattie that her baby will be a hybrid.” 

Mia blinks. “What?”

“Yeah. That’s what I said too.” 

_ “You’re _ not even a hybrid anymore. And even if you were, you couldn’t pass on an implant.” 

“It’s my blood,” he says. “She thinks the synthetic fluid altered its base chemistry, when they mingled.” 

“...does Niska know how human reproduction takes place?” 

Leo smirks. “She says the year in the coma was long enough for a complete DNA overhaul. Look, I know how it sounds, but she… Niska tells it better. And by better I mostly mean scarier.” 

“But what good does she think it will do? Will the baby even be healthy?”

“Stronger than any human. A new species. Human and synth.”

“Oh Niska,” Mia mutters. “You think you’ll achieve utopia this way.”

“She’s sure of it. She’ll do whatever it takes.” 

Mia thinks of her sister earlier that night, violet eyes full of steel. He isn’t wrong. 

“Poor Mattie,” says Mia quietly. “It would be hard enough without this.” 

He nods. 

“You have to stand by her, Leo. You know that, don’t you? Even if she doesn’t want... a relationship, she needs you on her side.” 

“Yes, I know. I will be.” 

“Not ‘will be’.  _ Am. _ This starts now.” 

She feels him breathe out, long and slow, and she turns her head to press a kiss against his temple. 

For a while they are both silent. 

“Come to think of it, it could be worse,” he says, eventually, a hint of something lighter in his voice. “Having you as a grandmother will more than make up for having me as a father.” 

“I hadn’t even thought about that.” Mia smiles. “I can’t be a grandmother, I’m only sixteen.”  

He chuckles, then says more soberly, “I couldn’t bear the thought that you’d never get to meet her. Or even know she was coming.”

“‘She’?” Mia echoes. 

“So Niska says.” 

“Can she really know that already?” 

“By that point in the conversation I’d stopped asking for proof.” 

“I see.”

A pause. “Should we be worried? About Niska?” 

Mia considers it. She knows her sister to be a capable person - brave, and decisive, and just. If someone has to have access to all human knowledge, there would be far worse choices than Niska. Her assertions about Mattie and Leo’s child seem… outlandish, and Mia isn’t keen on the idea of any child growing up with the fate of two species on their shoulders. But there are enough of them to rally around, make sure Niska doesn’t go overboard.

“Not yet,” says Mia. “Let’s see what she’s going to do.” 

_ And you, too, Leo, _ she thinks.  _ Let’s see what you’re made of.  _

For what it’s worth, she thinks he’ll be surprised. 


End file.
